Question

LABFORCE and OCC2010 in ACS

I am using OCC2010 in ACS 1% 2016 to count people by occupation. As a cross-check, I added a filter for LABFORCE "Yes, in labor force" to the formula and surprisingly it eliminated almost half of my OCC2010 group. Evidently they are marked as "Not in labor force" in LABFORCE at the same time that they are marked in a specific job in OCC2010. Is this an error?

Staff Answer

This is not an error. The universe (for the ACS samples) of the occupation variables OCC and OCC2010 include persons 16+ years old who had worked within the previous 5 years. So, it is entirely possible for an individual to have worked within the past five years (and therefore provides an occupation), but is currently not in the labor force (via LABFORCE).

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